Do Referrals 2.0 work for you?

[ganeshcp]

I'm running a personalized promotion (a personal recommendation) for a free newsletter site which needs a survey to be completed. I've had 40 clicks just hours after running it and not one single conversion. I'm sure someone completed the survey, I fail to understand how there can't be one single conversion? Or do conversions depend on origin of country, like Firefox referrals? If so, shouldn't that be mentioned somewhere?

[netmeg]

I had something like 400 clicks, and one conversion (other than Google pack stuff, which I've always gotten)

I'm thinking I might wait until 3.0. Or at least 2.1

[scottct1]

I didnt think it was working... until the other day...

I have had hundreds of clicks but no conversions.. they on Thursday someone purchased something and I was rewarded with over $30 for the conversion.

I am going to keep them up another week and see if that was luck or if these work.

I do wish that google would let me specify other keywords I would like ads shown from instead of just the ones strictly related to the topic of my website. :)

[netmeg]

For the referral ads, you can pick whatever categories and/or ads you want.

[skweb]

Affiliate programs like Linkshare, Amazon, Commission Junction - tried them all. Never worked. The conversion is simply not there. Not the best option if you have high quality content but if you have traffic with light content they might be worth it.

[Scurramunga]

I have had hundreds of clicks but no conversions

I had something like 400 clicks, and one conversion

WoW! I was due to give R.2.0 a go this week but maybe I should just give it a big miss. Why risk loosing hundreds of potential clicks for little or no gain?

[Green_Grass]

My observations..

Some of these advertisers have (deliberately) kept their landing pages un focussed. I mean, if you want a 'Registration' for a newsletter, you should atleast MENTION that on the landing page. They are grabbing free traffic and branding by getting people to add to favorite ..maybe.

Some of them are paying good money to get that first 'conversion' because they know, once the customer buys, he is 'hooked' into monthly purchase (things like beauty products, health products). We get nothing for subsequent purchases. Also there does not seem to be a cookie for future purchases. I mean the customer may not buy immediately, but after a few days but we get nothing.

Some ads advertise one product but the landing page has 10 products. It is not clear if we get anything if the customer buys some other product than advertised.

One has to pick and choose really carefully..

Still waiting for the first conversion..

[RonS]

How does G know if a conversion has occurred?

[edited by: RonS at 6:05 pm (utc) on July 7, 2007]

[Bluepixel]

You have to add a piece of jaascript code to the checkout page.
However, you never know if the one you are working with, is cheating on you. He could simply omit the javascript code in let's say half of the purchases. No way for google to find out.

[loner]

I'm redeveloping my affliate links (read diversifying). I'm finding the more I throw in with G, the more my income is diluted and the less I make. Lately my trend has been swinging back to the affliate links and away from Adsense, which has been sinking for a year now no matter how many pages I add or what I try. Also, I'm getting a better price for selling my own space now that Adsense helped to give me a ballpark valuation.

[sailorjwd]

Out of 20 different ads I have only one that converts pretty well.. unfortunately in pays under $1.

I haven't made a nickle on the others but it has only been about a week.

[RonS]

We're supposed to trust advertisers to pay out on their conversions? BWahahahaha

No thanks.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Also there does not seem to be a cookie for future purchases. I mean the customer may not buy immediately, but after a few days but we get nothing.

There's a 30-day cookie associated with referrals, so even if the ad click doesn't result in an immediate conversion, you'll get credit for conversions occurring during later visits within that month.

-ASA

[celgins]

There's a 30-day cookie associated with referrals, so even if the ad click doesn't result in an immediate conversion, you'll get credit for conversions occurring during later visits within that month.

I'm guessing this is the same 30-day cookie utilized for traditional conversion metrics.

I'm also guessing that some publishers will be out of luck if an advertiser offers a convenient "30-Day Free Trial Offer" and allows the customer to purchase on day 31. :(

[BillyS]

>>We're supposed to trust advertisers to pay out on their conversions? BWahahahaha

We just got offered 2.0 and if they've got the right inventory I'm going to give it a try. As far as trust goes let's hope advertisers trust publishers more than some of the publishers here trust advertisers... if not then the whole arrangement quickly breaks down.

[RonS]

Say I'm looking at a referral with a very hefty payout amount -- I have a feeling that conversions would be low per click. That's fine, I'd have to decide if I want to send all that traffic for free in the hopes of a conversion, or if I'd rather have contextually targeted ads that pay me a small amount per click. It's just a shift of the risk from the advertiser to the publisher.

But if G isn't playing middleman on the conversions -- no thanks!

The advertisers don't trust the publishers. Publishers can't trust the advertisers. But advertisers trust GOOGLE to police the clicks. How is GOOGLE policing the payouts? Are they?

Is G signing up for multi-hundred dollar products to test publishers' integrity? I don't think so. How will G monitor the advertisers then? Wait for publishers' customers to tell the publisher that they ordered, and then the publisher will have to go back and see if there was a conversion recorded for that day and campaign and then go complain to Google? Given the level of info we receive?

Here's what an unscrupulous advertiser might think: "Hey, maybe I'll start an advertising campaign offering $150 for every $100 sign-up and only pay out on 50% of them. I think I'm technically capable of displaying the javascript on only 1/2 of the conversion pages, and I'm sure the number of publishers signing up will be plentiful."

Google wants to get paid too. So the question is: How is Google policing the advertisers? They haven't met my criteria for assuring me that they are, so I won't be devoting any substantial fraction of my inventory to referrals. Until they do, I'll wait for a referral that fits my niche perfectly and promote the heck out of it for a short period and see how it goes.

I'm disappointed so far.

[koan]

There seems to be difficulties with targeting the right categories, I see Blood Sugar programs in the search results of a keyword that has nothing to do with it.

Also, after checking some advertisers, a lot of them put a huge phone number on the landing page when the commission goes to using a tiny form at the bottom of the page. Many of them are trying to get traffic for free and avoid paying commissions altogether with these phone numbers.

Another problem is the lack of focus on the required action for the landing page. If the action is about filling out a form, don't make it small, at the bottom of the page after dozens of links everywhere to navigate the site...

Don't send your traffic for free people, stay alert about possible sneaky tactics.

I guess we'll all have a better idea when advertisers get some history and show their "performance on network".

[farmboy]

I'm also guessing that some publishers will be out of luck if an advertiser offers a convenient "30-Day Free Trial Offer" and allows the customer to purchase on day 31.

Take a look at the landing page and see if the advertiser is doing that. If he is, don't promote his ad.

FarmBoy

[farmboy]

That's fine, I'd have to decide if I want to send all that traffic for free in the hopes of a conversion, or if I'd rather have contextually targeted ads that pay me a small amount per click.

At the risk of sounding multi-repetitive, you can lower that risk by taking a look at the landing page.

Is it easy to find and take advantage of what was offered in the ad? Good

Is it a generic page whereby the visitor has to search for what was offered in the ad? Bad

Is the landing page focused on what was offered in the ad? Good

Is the landing page cluttered with distractions from what was offered in the ad? Bad

This can work if advertisers will get the landing page right. This is really just Affiliate Marketing Techniques 101.

I keep thinking some of the advertisers posting on the AdWords board are going to come over here and ask publishers suggestions on what they can do to make their offers more attractive. I'm a bit puzzled why that hasn't happened yet, it has certainly been suggested a couple of times.

FarmBoy

[Alioc]

I'm also giving it a go starting today. That will be very competitive for advertisers as Google indicates their "performance on network" clearly to us. It will most probably get better and better by time. Choosing the right ads for the right site means a lot - being greedy won't work, we should choose the ads wisely.

Finally, I'm so happy to be able to CHOOSE! :)

[Khensu]

I am finding out that $3-$7 payouts convert the best. Means the end product is within a fathomable dollar value for the general customer, selecting the correct ad is important. Getting 20% of my income from PPA now.

They need to have a slot for new advertisers in the last 7 days, this way I don't have to troll through what I have already seen.

[edited by: Khensu at 4:17 am (utc) on July 10, 2007]

[Green_Grass]

Good tip from Khensu.. I guess, I better focus on the lower payouts rather than the USD 30- 50 payouts which may never materialize..

[netmeg]

Now that my peak time is over, I intend to try Referrals again in a more focused way on some of my other sites, and see if I can get it to work.

At least I will if they ever get around to coming out and fixing my cable connection, grrr.